— says FAO expert but urges embrace of food security

FOOD and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Assistant Director General, Dr. Julio Berdegue said Guyana can be the solution to the Caribbean’s food import problem, but only if the country realises its “production potential”.

Engaging members of the media on Thursday, during a visit to Guyana, the assistant director general noted his visit here is to strengthen FAO’s collaboration with Guyana, given the unique role Guyana can play in agriculture development.

“The Caribbean faces an enormous problem of a food import bill which is growing every year for the past 30-35 years. Right now, the Caribbean is spending US $4.5B each year to buy food that can be grown in the sub-region,” he explained.

Dr. Berdegue sees this as a huge problem to food safety and security in the Caribbean Region.

“Guyana is a fundamental part of the solution to this problem. Few other countries in the Caribbean have the production potential of Guyana,” he told reporters.

This potential, he said, is under threat from climate change. In fact, he shared that by 2030, 50 per cent of the whole of Latin America and Caribbean region will experience about a 1.5 higher degree of temperature.

This increase in temperature would not augur well for the continuation of agriculture and feeding the population. “We don’t have a lot of time to spare,” he said, while adding that real solutions to climate change need to be implemented.
And specifically in Guyana’s context, he stressed that practising climate-smart agriculture that coexists with its emerging oil and gas sector, is vital.

INNOVATION

Dr. Berdegue noted that the agricultural products produced do not need to be changed, but instead, different varieties can be produced through different farming methods. And he suggested that there are various ways of mitigating this and fostering sustainable agricultural practices with the myriad of techniques and technologies available.

“What we have to do probably is shifting the places we do agriculture. Certain crops that grow here very well [because] of changes in weather patterns [and] temperature patterns, we would have to move them to other parts of the country,” he explained.

But this is also a “complex process”, according to him.

“It’s 800 million farmers in the world, figuring out how to deal with this issue; there’s 190 countries,” he said, but hastened to reassure: “There’s a lot of innovation, there’s a lot of creativity and one of the roles we (the FAO) play is to make available these technologies and solutions for countries.”

For Guyana, he does not believe that the emerging oil and gas industry is a threat to sustainable agriculture. He did however acknowledge that it would change the country’s economy.

“There might be competition for spaces with the fishes [and the oil extraction facilities offshore], not so much with crop production or animal production,” he explained, pointing out that this has occurred in Trinidad.

However, he also indicated that Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, has requested assistance from the FAO in maneuvering this competition for space with both the petroleum and fisheries industry.

“On the other hand, the oil and gas economy, if it’s done well, may be able to provide some of the very large investments that will be necessary to meet the challenge, for example, of climate change adaptation [or] of changing the food systems,” he said.

BENEFICIAL

“These are not inexpensive things to do; these are not cheap things to do. These are significant investments over the long-term and if the oil and gas economy goes well, and is managed sustainably and in a responsible way, it can be a significant source of resources for this country,” Dr. Berdegue said.

As a citizen of Mexico, he also shared that his country has been a major producer of oil and gas since the 1930s, while still maintaining a vibrant agricultural sector.

“Oil and gas and agriculture can live together and develop together,” he affirmed, and added: “We need modern regularisation and modern technologies to manage a space in order to make these different economic activities coexist in the less stressful situation and more mutually reinforcing situation.”

In the meantime, the FAO will be helping Guyana to successfully manage its food sector, particularly to build it into a climate-resilient one.

“We are interested very much in helping to validate many of those climate-smart agricultural practices to ensure that we really have a system in knowing that they are producing the results that we are looking for,” FAO Country Representative, Dr. Gillian Smith added.

Aside from ensuring these facets are in place, Dr. Berdegue also indicated that the food being produced should be “healthy food”, since one of the major health ailments in the Caribbean is the “run-away epidemic” of weight and obesity.

These affect about 50 per cent of Guyana’s population, Dr. Berdegue said.